Strychnine is a potent, naturally occurring neurotoxin that effectively protects plants from animal pests by deterring feeding behavior. In insects, such as the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, bitter-tasting aversive compounds are detected primarily through a family of gustatory receptors (GRs), which are expressed in gustatory receptor neurons. We previously described multiple GRs that eli...

In this paper we present the concept of combining feature models and solution models through aspect-oriented graph rewriting systems (AO-GRS) in the context of product-line engineering (PLE). Variable parts of software systems are often modelled by feature models in PLE. In Model Driven Development a feature is represented by means of model elements in a solution model, e.g. classes, methods or...

We present X-ray observations of the Black-Hole Binary GRS 1915+105 made with the RXTE (Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer). We concentrated on timing analysis of the strong variability focusing on its aperiodic variability on short (<1s) time scales. In the power density spectra, we found a feature which is seen in many transient systems, but until now was not detected in GRS 1915+105 due to its elus...

The yellow-fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, infects a growing number of people every year with dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya viruses. Contact chemoreception in mosquitoes influences a number of behaviors including host-selection, oviposition and feeding. While these behaviors are in many instances well documented, the molecular mechanisms mediating them are not well understood. Here we rep...

A four mass torsion pendulum facility for testing of the LISA GRS is under development in Trento. With a LISA-like test mass suspended off-axis with respect to the pendulum fiber, the facility allows for a direct measurement of surface force disturbances arising in the GRS. We present here results with a prototype pendulum integrated with very large-gap sensors, which allows an estimate of the ...

A 79-year-old woman developed hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis after breast cancer surgery. She was suspected of having primary glucocorticoid resistance on the basis of high plasma ACTH and serum cortisol levels without the features of Cushing's syndrome. To clarify the end-organ resistance to cortisol, we characterized the glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in cultured skin fibroblasts from the...

The relationship between genetic risk variants associated with glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes risk has yet to be fully explored in African American populations. We pooled data from 4 prospective studies including 4622 African Americans to assess whether β-cell dysfunction (BCD) and/or insulin resistance (IR) genetic variants were associated with increased type 2 diabetes risk. The BCD ...